Original Articles
M. Suneetha, B. Syama Sundar a
Abstract
The objective of Water Quality Index (WQI) is to turn a complex water quality data into information that is clear and useful for the community. The present study is aimed to calculate WQI for the groundwater samples collected in Vinukonda Mandal of Guntur District. WQI is an effective tool to assess the suitability of groundwater quality for drinking purposes through providing a single number based on various physicochemical parameters. Twenty three groundwater samples are collected from the study area and 17 physicochemical parameters such as pH, EC, TDS, TA, TH, Turbidity, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, F-, ,, , and DO are analyzed. WQI is calculated to know the overall groundwater quality status of the study area and the values ranges from 130.97 to 206.59. Then its quality is categorized based on different conditions including excellent, good, poor, very poor and unfit. The results show that the groundwater quality for the 22 samples is poor and for the other sample is very poor indicating that the groundwater is not fit for drinking purposes without treatment. The present paper reveals that the groundwater of the study area requires some extent of treatment before consumption.